Articles

De dans van de taal in het sociaal werk

Author:

Hilde Vlaeminck

University College Arteveldehogeschool; “Master in Social Work” at the K.U.Leuven, BE

About Hilde

Abstract

The linguistic dance of social work
Language is a very important matter in every science. It facilitates the transfer and circulation of knowledge, which is necessary for the permanent evolution in a profession. In social work, language seems to be reduced to the direct interaction between a social worker and a client. But this is only the half-story. This article argues why language deserves more scientific attention particularly in the area of practice reflection and social work theory. More than hundred years after the publication of Mary Richmond’s book Friendly visiting among the poor in 1899(!), the question is if and in what way language has been changed. Have we only introduced new words or did we create new contents and discourses because of a changing vision and tasks? Nowadays social workers use several languages: the oral, the written, the phone-language and the virtual language by chat and email. Particularly virtual language opens new linguistic opportunities and confronts social work with specific questions. The article points out if and why social workers and researchers have to pay more attention to their linguistic capital. Language is dancing through history in several ways. But social workers don’t utilize the whole dance floor.